Dr. Benjamin F. Shambaugh and Mr. Dan E. Clark represented the Society at the meeting of The Mississippi Valley Historical Association, at St. Louis, June 17-19.

Mr. Clifford Powell and Miss Ethyl E. Martin, both members of the Society, were the respective winners of the first and third prizes offered by the Iowa Society of the Colonial Dames of America for the best essays in Iowa history.

Mr. Kenneth Colgrove, author of The Delegates to Congress from the Territory of Iowa, will do research work under the auspices of the Society during the summer. He has recently been awarded the Jesup prize offered at the State University of Iowa for the best essay on some subject relating to citizenship.

Mr. Louis Pelzer, who for two years has been Research Assistant in The State Historical Society of Iowa, is teaching in the State Normal School at Winona, Minnesota, during the present summer session. He has been elected to the position of Professor of History in the Montana State Normal School for the year 1909-1910.

Mrs. Sarah C. Fellows has donated to the Society a number of valuable books and pamphlets which belonged to her husband, the late Stephen N. Fellows. The Society especially appreciates all such additions to its library because of the association of the books with the men who have helped to build the Commonwealth of Iowa.

Dr. John C. Parish, who for a year has been in Europe on a leave of absence from the Society, has returned to Iowa. While in Europe Dr. Parish spent much time in the archives of France and Spain, searching for material bearing on Mississippi Valley history. He will now resume active connection with the work of the Society.

The following persons have recently been elected to membership in the Society: Mr. C. R. Benedict, Shelby, Iowa; Mr. Geo. L. Schoonover, Anamosa, Iowa; Mr. Thomas D. Foster, Ottumwa, Iowa; Mr. Roger Leavitt, Cedar Falls, Iowa; Miss Merze Marvin, Des Moines, Iowa; Mr. Byron W. Newberry, Strawberry Point, Iowa; Professor Paul F. Peck, Grinnell, Iowa; Miss Sara F. Rice,

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Cedar Falls, Iowa; Hon. B. W. Lacy, Dubuque, Iowa; Miss Sara M. Riggs, Cedar Falls, Iowa; and Mr. S. G. Frink, Tipton, Iowa.

Pursuant to law a meeting of the members of the Society was held on the evening of Monday, June 28, 1909, for the purpose of electing Curators for the ensuing biennial period. The following is the list of those elected: M. W. Davis, Peter A. Dey, George W. Ball, J. W. Rich, Euclid Sanders, Laenas G. Weld, Arthur J. Cox, James H. Trewin, and Henry G. Walker. A resolution was adopted instructing the Secretary to send the greetings of the Society to Dr. Josiah L. Pickard, the only living Ex-President of the Society.

NOTES AND COMMENT

The Iowa Department of the G. A. R. held its annual encampment at Fort Dodge, June 8-10, 1909.

A Bureau of Municipal Research, modelled after the one in New York City, has been established at Cincinnati, Ohio.

The fifteenth annual meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration was held on May 19-21, 1909.

A movement has been inaugurated to commemorate the threehundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims by a World's Tercentennial Exposition at Boston in 1920.

Professor James A. James, of Northwestern University, has returned from a several months' sojourn in Europe, where he gathered material relative to certain phases of western history.

Professor Frederick J. Turner, of Wisconsin University, delivered the Phi Beta Kappa address during commencement week at The State University of Iowa on the subject of Pioneer Ideals and the State University.

The thirty-sixth annual meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Correction was held at Buffalo, New York, during the week ending June 19. Miss Jane Addams, of Chicago, was chosen President of the Conference for 1910.

The workings of tax commissions may be seen in two western States Wisconsin and Minnesota. The commission in Wisconsin has recently made its fourth biennial report, while in Minnesota the commission is of more recent establishment and made its first report to the last legislature.

The Thirty-Third General Assembly of Iowa appropriated the sum of one thousand dollars to defray the expenses of disinterring the remains of Iowa's first State Governor, Ansel Briggs, and of removing them to his former home at Andrew, Jackson County,

Iowa. The disinterment took place on May 21, and the remains of the old Governor now rest in Iowa soil, beneath a suitable monument. It was chiefly through the efforts of Mr. J. W. Ellis, of Maquoketa, that the appropriation was made.

On Friday, June 11, 1909, the thirty-seventh annual reunion of the Oregon Pioneer Association was held at Portland, Oregon. This association consists of persons coming to, or born in, the origi nal Territory of Oregon prior to the close of the year 1859. Especial interest attaches to the reunion this year in view of the fact that it is the year of the semi-centennial of Oregon's statehood.

The Old Settlers' Association of Cedar County held its annual meeting at Tipton on June 10, 1909. The principal address was given by Mr. B. L. Wick, of Cedar Rapids. This association numbers among its members some of the oldest of the Iowa pioneers. During the past year death took away a large number, some of whom came to the Iowa country while it was yet a part of the Territory of Wisconsin.

The past few months have witnessed the unveiling of a number of monuments in the Mississippi Valley. The service rendered by George Rogers Clark in saving the Old Northwest received recog nition recently at Quincy, Illinois, in the erection of a monument. At Chicago on May 16, a tablet in honor of the explorers Marquette and Joliet was unveiled. Among the many Lincoln monuments perhaps the most interesting is the one unveiled at the mar tyr President's birthplace in Kentucky, on May 31. These instances have been selected among many because of the influence which the men in whose honor the monuments were erected had on the history of the middle west. Within the State of Iowa may also be mentioned the monument to Governor Briggs at Andrew, one to Chief Mahaska at Oskaloosa and one to Company H, 31st Iowa Infantry, at Monticello.

Beginning with the present year the Iowa Society of the Colonial Dames of America will offer three prizes, instead of one as hitherto, for the best essay in Iowa history, written by a student in an Iowa college or university. The first prize is seventy-five dollars, the

second fifty dollars, and the third twenty-five dollars. All of the essays submitted this year were of an unusually high order and the markings were close. Mr. Clifford Powell, a student at the State University of Iowa, won the first prize with an essay entitled, Contributions of Albert M. Lea to the Literature of Iowa History. Miss Beulah May Garrard, of Cornell College, came second with an essay on The Development of County Government in Iowa. The third prize was won by Miss Ethyl E. Martin, of The State University of Iowa, who wrote on A Bribery Episode in the First Election of United States Senators in Iowa. The remaining essays ranked but little below the prize winners, and are worthy of much praise. The Iowa Society of the Colonial Dames is to be congratulated on its success in arousing an interest in Iowa history, and in stimulating the production of so many worthy essays as were submitted this year.

President Roosevelt exhibited a wise foresightedness when he directed the Committee of Department Methods to appoint an assistant committee to make recommendations concerning documentary historical publications of the United States Government. This committee which was composed of some of the most eminent historians in the country has made an extended report covering forty large pages. By way of introduction there is a review of the course pursued by the Government hitherto, showing the lack of method and the extravagance which have prevailed; and a survey of the field of United States history with special reference to the gaps to be filled in official publications. Then follow the recommendations, ending with suggestions for a permanent Commission on National Historical Publications and a draft of a bill creating such a commission. It is sincerely to be hoped the recommendations of this report will be adopted.

SAMUEL WALLACE DURHAM

Samuel Wallace Durham was born on March 7, 1817, at Vallonia, Jackson County, Indiana. He moved to Iowa in 1840; and, with the exception of three years spent on a farm, he made his home at Marion, in Linn County. He was a delegate to the Constitutional